Saturday, March 24, 2012

Last Post for the Weekend (Probably)

Some of you might be curious about the clock I purchased recently. It arrived in the mail earlier this week (which was fast!)

I'm thrilled with it. It's incredibly heavy and well made for its size, and it's actually in working condition (although I will clean it before I decide to keep it running full time).

The front is decorated with a cherub, putti, birds, fruit, and leaves. There are, however, two carvings in the lower corners, and I'm not sure what they are meant to represent. One looks like it has a hammer (left), and one looks like it has two horns (right).

I'm not sure what this fellow is supposed to represent. He almost looks like "The Fool" depicted in Tarot decks, but not quite. I have no idea what he's carrying.

This figure, however, is definitely "The Hermit" as depicted in tarot decks, complete with walking stick, cloak, and lantern, except that the hermit is usually carrying the lantern at eye level.

The movement is an 8 day lever timepiece by Empire (roughly 1920-30). I know little about this company, other than they made a very large variety of clocks, including wall clocks, and reproduction clocks. The company was eventually bought-out by Smiths.

All the engravings appear to be done by hand (as opposed to etched or machine engraved). This is also true of the dial numerals, which show several imperfections and inconsistencies (all of which are a bonus to me, since it looks more handmade like an older clock). The only shortfall on the entire clock are the hands, which are a tad thin.

And to put things in perspective, this is a pretty small clock, so this photo should give you a much better idea of the size.